Daily Roundup, 09/20/12

The Nationals clinched a playoff berth tonight.
- Let me remind you that they lost 103 games only three years ago.

Meanwhile, the Pirates are back under .500 as they blew a 7-4 eighth inning lead.
- Maybe this isn’t so much unpredictable as sad.
– They were 63-47 on August 8
— and the last time they were under .500 was May 29.

Phil Hughes struck out four batters in an inning.
- He’s the second Yankee to do this in the history of the franchise.
– The first was … just last year.
— And it was AJ Burnett.
—- The Yankees just swept the Blue Jays. Ichiro had nine hits in the series and the Yankees had 23 total.
—– He raised his OPS as a Yankee almost 100 points in this series alone.
—— At one point, he had seven hits in a row.

Mauro Gomez has two triples this season.
- And Jacoby Ellsbury has none. (via @peteabe)
– Jose Iglesias went 3-for-4 in the Red Sox/Rays game
— with a home run!
—- and the Red Sox lost anyway
—– because the Rays had a six-run ninth.
—— Clay Buchholz threw seven scoreless innings and the Red Sox gave up seven runs, somehow.

The Phillies scored seven runs in the ninth inning against the Mets. This wouldn’t be that remarkable, except…
- The inning started with a strikeout.
– actually, the Phillies had two outs and only a runner on first when the damage began.
— Josh Edgin was brought in to face Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, both lefties, with the bases loaded; Utley got hit with a pitch and Howard hit a grand slam.
—- Also, this wasn’t the Phillies’ biggest inning damage-wise. They scored eight runs in the first, and it was 5-0 before any outs were recorded.
—– Jeremy Hefner gave up seven runs while not recording an out.
—— Meanwhile, someone called a Tyler Cloyd threw eight innings of one-run ball for the Phillies.
——- The Phillies had 21 hits, and only two were for extra bases.
——– Hefner’s outing, and the Philly first inning, went thusly: single, single, single, single, single, single, walk, hit batsman, double play (from Cloyd), single, single, single, groundout. Hefner was yanked after the walk.
——— In a 16-1 game, the Phillies and Mets had the same number of home runs.